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what am I missing here? the new bullet brand (Hammer) with minimal track record, more expensive (I think) vs. other proven monos over many years such as Barnes touted by professional hunters world wide. More accurate? better penetration? More available? More options in weights? Educate me guys. thanks

Accuracy, minimal load development, dang good terminal performance, no ice picking, and……..they are available any time you call.

That's pretty close.

DF

In my case I cannot find Barnes 62 grain anywhere in my area and since I'm in California not allowed to purchase out of state.

Sorry to hijack.. Anyone running a hammer with a short barrel .308win?

Mine has an 18” barrel.

Gunner just sent me these photos of his Oct. '22 buff kill in S/A, Namibia/Botswana border on the Orange River. As posted earlier, Steve at Hammer Bullets told him that his was the first buff killed with their 404 Hammer bullet.

Pay attention to the exit pattern, and contrast it with my WT exit pattern. His was the 404 gr. .458 Win Mag, mine a 178 gr. .358 Win. But the exit pattern is pretty close to the same.

It was a 28 yd. broadside shot that put him down right there, (DRT). Gunner said this old bull was an "ornary sombitch" that was off by himself, "tearing the crap out of a tree" when they found him He was no longer breeding, had killed two breeding age bulls, so don't ya know the PH was glad to see him go. Gunner said he was so mean, even old "coffee house dagga boys" wouldn't hang with him.

Now, for those Hammer doubters and skeptics, check out these photos.

The gun is a .458 Win Mag that gunner had built, stock by a guy in CA. He reminded me that I had sold him the SS bottom metal off a project of mine.

The 404 gr. Hammer was moving at 2,518 fps over an an unspecified, gunner sized load of AA 2460.

DF

Same gun, same load:

Had a decent day today to hit the range and wanted to try another rifle with these bullets. These were 124gr Hammer Hunters for my 270. Loaded 3 rounds each with 3 different powders, all same COAL which was 50 thou back of lands. Shot each load in succession with enough time to allow barrel to cool down. Worst group measured 7/8” and best was slightly under 3/8”. Pretty fair results given I’d never shot any of these in this rifle!

I’ll say!

What did you load Scott?

I've shot a few deer with the 88gr Hammer hunter bullets. They don't seem to be any better or worse than any other bullet for killing power. HH do shoot great and I didn't have any problems finding a load that worked. With that said I never could find a good load for the 87gr Absolute Hunter bullets.

Hammer in a 22 Creed would be a monster of a bullet .

This is what I'm wondering. I've never seen anyone with them, have only heard about them for so long, and even WITH a vet discount they're $85 shipped for one box of 50 HHTs when I can get the 145 LRX for half that!

That's a big premium for a new bullet. You'd think they'd want to be price competitive to encourage people trying them out. At that price, while curious, I'll probably pass and stick with the LRX.

Small shop producing a custom quality product....you're going to pay more for the product than you would a mass produced product from a decades old, established business. I am sure they want their products out there and to be competitive, but I suspect the economy of scale is what you are seeing driving prices right now.

With outfits like Weatherby starting to load them in factory ammo, I am sure they will gain traction if reports stay positive. They may one day be priced very similar to Barnes.

From their website, Absolute Hammers must be pretty finicky.

"Absolute Hammers are very similar to the Hammer Hunter bullets with the same 1.5mm hollow point and the same basic form. We designed the Absolute Hammer so that it can not be engraved on the ogive of the bullet. The only part of the bullet that encounters the barrel is the PDR drive bands. This greatly reduced the engraving pressure of the bullet which in turn increased the potential velocity in most cartridges. [Because of the very low engraving pressure the Absolute Hammers do not line up well with conventional bullet loading data. They should only be loaded by expert reloaders that are capable of working up a load without any supporting data."]

110 HH in the 6.5 Creedmoor
137 HH in .308


And then I sold the .308 (Ridgeline FFT) to a bud that had to have it.

Funny timing on this thread DF, i hadn't saw it when we were texting about hammer bullets last week, did want to send you some pics of what they can do, Riflecrank is the real driving force behind the 458 cal 404 Hammer bullet, and the very reason it was built in the first place, i was just the first guy that already had a safari in the works, found the old bull and took him, yes, everyone around there was afraid of that bull, he was mean anyway, and growing meaner each day due to some guy that prior April taking a hail mary shot at a running Wildebeest bull, he hit the old Cape Buff in the brisket, 400gr ceb raptor shed it petals, shank of the bullet ranged down and back and was recovered in this old bulls flank.

He was getting more pissed off with every step, glad he's out of his misery and will be shortly headed for a farm in Oklahoma.

Yes these bullets are expensive, but, my hat is off for any bullet maunfacture busting their asses keeping bullets IN STOCK AND READY TO SHIP to us and not jacking the dog sending their components to uncle sugar gravy and ammo companies leaving us with green loading blocks full of sized, primed and powdered cases waiting on a fkn bullet!

Not really. All these were on the first day at the range with them.

You shot 19 deer this season?